Hi folks!
I was so excited to post the first chapter that I forgot to do my usual Author's Note. So I just wanted to explain my inspiration for this story. As soon as Gideon said to take Din for "debriefing" my mind went wild. I knew that the show would probably never do what I was imagining and couldn't stop myself from writing this. Less than 24 hours after S3 E7 aired I had a good chunk of the outline worked out in my head and some scenes written. I kept going throughout that week, even though I really tried to wait until I saw the finale. Since they obviously went in a completely different direction, this is now totally AU. But I loved what they did in the show. Having Grogu save Din was great and it perfectly set up the end of the season with Din adopting him and taking him as an Apprentice now instead of a Foundling.
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Din Djarin was flying on a speeder bike, having the time of his life. He could feel the wind pushing against his body, even through his beskar. He probably should slow down, the pressure of the wind on his chest was getting uncomfortable, but he just kept pushing the machine faster.
Hearing a delighted squeal, Din looked down to find Grogu beside him. Secured in Din's satchel attached to the seat, the little one had his hands up, his eyes squinting from the wind and ears flapping. Din put on more speed and the kid screamed louder and louder.
But something was wrong. The gravity on this planet must be off. Where were they, anyway? Didn't matter. He couldn't remember. But that had to be the reason he was getting uncomfortable. He never had a problem on speeder bikes before.
Suddenly Grogu's screams changed. They went from joy and thrill to terror and pain.
Wait. It wasn't Grogu who was screaming.
Din came back to reality as another bolt of electricity shot through his body. Every joint ached, every muscle spasmed. His spine tried to arc upward but was stopped by the metal straps that held him to the table.
The screams he'd heard in his dreams were his own. He had long since given up on not making a sound, but he still hadn't actually spoken a word.
The bolt of electricity stopped, and Din's body slumped back down as he panted from the exertion. He had a few moments of peace, then another bolt came for him. As his screams grew louder, his mind wandered again.
This time he was flying in the N-1, hurtling toward Beggar's canyon with Grogu happily squealing in his seat where the astromech socket had once been. It was a good dream and Din let it take over as the pain continued to roll through his body.
Sometime later, Din was dumped back in his cell. Shaking with fatigue, he got to his hands and knees, then slowly stood. He swayed a moment before putting one foot in front of the other to walk to his bed. No, it couldn't be called a bed. A cot? Nope, still not right. It was hard as a rock and so narrow that he hardly fit. The thing barely qualified as a bench.
One day Din might have to crawl back to this bench, he knew that. Until that day came, he wasn't giving his captors the pleasure of seeing that happen.
Din sat heavily, resting his elbows on his knees, and cupping his helmeted head in his hands. His body still shook residually from the electricity, despite his efforts to stop the tremors. He debated laying down but chose to push himself upright until he was leaning against the wall on the bench, his feet on the floor.
He would sleep later. Now he needed to think, to plan, to strategize. He couldn't depend on anyone coming to rescue him, so he needed to keep his mind as sharp as possible. Din had a short, heated argument with his heavy eyelids, willing them back open as he stared ahead and organized the new information he had gained from his last trip outside of his cell. He filed away every detail, ready to use it when the time came for him to get out of this place.
It wasn't that the others wouldn't want to come and get him, as they would any fellow Mandalorian who had been captured. But their priority, Bo's priority had to be taking back Mandalore. He berated himself for getting caught and being nothing more than a hindrance to that plan, the reason they probably hadn't already bombed the Moff's base. Or maybe they were still working on such a strategy, and it would be happening soon. Either way, Din felt a strong need to work on a way out on his own.
Din still had his armor and though the pain of every visit to the debriefing room was unimaginable (or had been before, it was all too easy to imagine now), it was survivable. He used the time after every visit to go over what he had learned and observed when he was taken there and dragged back. Today he felt confident that he had discovered more about their timing.
If the Imps were using a standard day/night schedule, Din guessed he was being tortured once a day. Sometimes it might have been twice, but usually it was just once. He had also been quietly studying the guards when he was in his cell, the times they changed, how many were outside his door.
It wasn't enough yet. He needed more information before he could fully put together a plan, but ideas were already starting to be formulated. On his next time out, he intended to look more closely at his surroundings to see if he could find what doors there were and where they led.
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Moff Gideon watched the Mandalorian over the security system. He noted how the man didn't crawl to his cot but stood and walked there. He saw the debate over whether to lay down and give in to the pain and fatigue before the man forced himself to stay upright.
Din Djarin was obviously making plans and Gideon was only too happy to let him. He would let the other man think he was staying a step ahead of them. Sadly, for him, he wasn't ahead of the Moff at all.
Gideon was enjoying this part of Din's capture as much as he enjoyed the torture. He was allowing the Mandalorian to think he was plotting an escape, that he might actually make it out. Even that the current protocols being utilized were as bad as it was going to get - which were bad enough for many an ordinary man, but Gideon knew Din Djarin was no ordinary man. Gideon let the man think he had hope.
It would be so much sweeter that way, when Gideon took it all away from him.
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This talking to Din thing had become a habit in the days since his capture. It probably wasn't good for her, but Bo didn't care. It helped to almost have him there. They had spent so much time together recently that Bo felt she knew everything Din would suggest she do about her current predicament.
Not that Bo wasn't able to make her own decisions, she had been a leader for a while. But she liked that Din hadn't immediately treated her like a princess when they met. Of course, he hadn't had a clue who she was, but still, she liked someone who spoke their mind and stood up for themselves.
Once they got past the mutual aggression from growing up with such different beliefs, she found Din wasn't all that unlike her people. Despite the amount of times she had saved him, she never thought of him as less than her equal. They had had many adventures, starting on Mandalore when she'd rescued him. It was thanks to Din that she had visited her home planet again since the Purge.
She had been especially surprised and grateful when he had taken her back to his covert after her home was destroyed. Din had helped her better understand The Way of the Children of the Watch, and in turn he had learned more about her past and how she had lost the Darksaber while trying to do everything in her power to keep more of their people from dying.
Even when Din had pledged to follow her, she hadn't thought of him as below her. How could she? She would never forget that he had won the very symbol she held above all else as the way to lead Mandalore.
The Darksaber.
By all rights, Din could have attempted to take her throne. But that wasn't Din Djarin. He had no want of a throne. While she had no doubt he would be an excellent leader if he ever did decide to do it, that wasn't who he was. He wanted a simple life, to work, take care of his kid, and reunite their people. Then again, what was simple about all that?
"I know what you're thinking." The Din in her head interrupted her wanderings.
"Shut up, no you don't." Bo mumbled her reply, though she was currently alone on the bridge of the cruiser. But should anyone walk in, there was no need to let them think their leader was slowly losing her mind.
"You want to take off right now and come for me yourself. But that's not a good tactical move, Bo and you know it."
"Why not? They won't see it coming," her reply was a touch louder this time.
"Sure, they will," he countered. "You need to gather more intel about Moff's base before going in basically blind. Running in and out as fast as you did wasn't enough to figure out how to take it out."
"Fine, I'll go down and gather more intel. Happy?"
"Bo, you need to send someone else. Send Axe. He can sneak in, get into one of those new beskar stormtrooper suits, get some info and come back out."
She wanted to argue but he (or herself? Who was really talking here?) had a point. She walked over to a console and leaned over, gripping the edge with both hands. She let her head drop and when she looked back up, the Din in her mind was standing directly across from her with his arms crossed.
"Gather what you can and retreat. Then go back for more. Do it in small pieces. That they won't see coming," he said with a decisive head nod. "They're looking for an attack. They're looking for you to come back guns blazing, which, by the way, I think you should do. Come in and take the whole kriffing base out. Just be done with it."
"I'm not leaving you to die," her voice was barely a whisper, not because of any attempt to hide this insane conversation. But because the thought of him dying in that place squeezed at her heart. He didn't deserve that.
"Fine," he said with a shrug. "Then you have to send someone in and gather intel. Slowly."
Damn the man, why did he always have to be right? Even when she was the one imagining the entire conversation?
With that thought, the Din in her mind vanished and she was truly alone again. It was late and the crew of the second watch came in to replace her on the bridge. After saying goodnight, Bo was anything but tired, but she obediently went to her room. She needed to check on Grogu.
It broke her heart to see how the child was missing his father. She and the Armorer were taking care of him, though everyone in all of the clans were eager to look after him, ensuring he ate and slept, but he only let a few actually hold him. Bo was one, but she was often busy working on ways to save Din so wasn't always around as much as she wanted to be.
Without his father's strong arms to hold him, Grogu spent a lot of time sitting in his perch in IG-12. Even when he had nowhere to go, no reason to use the suit to walk anywhere. It seemed he felt secure there. It also gave the little one the ability to communicate with others around him.
Bo entered her room. The door swished quietly, and she found Grogu on his cot. The Armorer would have fed him (though he wasn't eating much) and put him to bed earlier. She would then check on him until Bo came back. They hadn't worked out this schedule, not formally, it had just happened over a mutual need to care for Din's child.
Bo walked over to the cot and noticed the little one twitching and whimpering lightly in his sleep. He had been having a lot of nightmares recently, though she supposed that was to be expected after all that he had been through.
She watched worriedly as his twitching and whimpering became more pronounced. The twitches were almost on a…pattern? Bo swore that she saw a specific amount of time between each one. Twitch, twitch, whimper. Twitch, twitch, whimper. She didn't think he was in any actual pain, but his dream did seem to be an especially vivid one.
Twitch, twitch, whimper. Twitch, twitch, whimper.
So strange…
Many light years away, Moff Gideon watched as the electricity pulsed through Din Djarin's body in a specific pattern intended to wear him out and cause the most pain.
Pulse, pulse, rest. Pulse, pulse, rest.
Din twitched each time the electricity pulsed through him, tensing his body so hard he couldn't even scream. Then with each rest, his body would relax just enough to let out a moan, before it all started again.
After a while, Gideon waved his hand and the pulses stopped. He watched as Din's body relaxed under the bindings, then his chest rose and fell as he took a steadying breath. Still not one word had been uttered by the Mandalorian since they brough him in. Gideon did not count the screams.
By all that is holy in this universe, Gideon thought. The man still refuses to crack.
Din continued to control his breathing. The fact that he hadn't been moved yet warned him that there might be more coming. He needed to gather his strength while he could. As he did so, he heard the Moff's voice off to his right.
"Excellent," Gideon said, walking into Din's view as he usually did when he chose to watch the proceedings in person. When he wasn't there, Din was sure the Moff must watch from the cameras he noted were in the room. "You've done very well so far. Better than I even imagined, and I had high hopes for how you would do during this phase."
This phase? Din didn't like the sound of that.
"You've done so well in fact that I think it's time to take things up a notch, don't you?"
The Moff turned to one of the guards.
"Take him back to his cell. Tomorrow, we start Phase Two."
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Okay, there we are! Just wanted to say that a I've got a fair bit of this story already written (though it needs polishing and editing) so I hope to keep up a pretty steady posting schedule. I don't know exactly what that will be but right now I'm planning for at least two chapters a week. Thanks to everyone who has followed and reviewed, etc. Knowing that people are interested in it is definitely helping me to stay motivated and write faster.
-Moki